It could be that we are heading for a diplomatic row of sorts with China demanding the repatriation of seventeen Uighurs who would be be released if the US prison at Guantanamo Bay is closed under the new administration.(1) Washington fears that the seventeen will be mistreated or even tortured should they be sent back to China.(2) Washington is, of course, not entirely wrong with that assertion even if the hypocrisy here is all too blatant. Still, with Guenter Nooke, the human rights envoy for the German government, urging Berlin to take the inmates there might just be a sort of happy ending to the Uighurs ordeal.(3) There is a small Uighur community here in Germany and let's face it the Chinese don't want them back so they can walk the streets of Urumchi or Kashgar. This will be a nice little test for the "hope and change" man and let's hope that he, along with the German government, can do the right thing here.
1 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/23/content_7333828.htm
2 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,471684,00.html
3 http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,3892751,00.html
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